SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to September's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: CHILDREN/YOUNG ADULT HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Evil dollhouses, potential body horror (turning into a doll), heights, pranks with the potential to cause harm, some stalking vibes
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

THE EVIL DOLLHOUSE

When you wake up, you find you're not in your own bed, your own room, or even your own house. The room is well decorated, almost Victorian in fashion. The bed is pretty uncomfortable and you're not even sure the mattress is a real mattress. The chairs look like they might be made of plastic and the doors are flimsy. But it might not be what catches your eye, especially if you look out the window.

Through the clear panes (which also seem to be plastic), you will notice you do not see the town of Deerington, or even the outdoors at all. You see a living room that feels larger than life. There aren't any people in it, but as you look around at the fake looking furnishings and the strange view, you might be hit with a realization: you're inside a dollhouse.

The dollhouse has three floors for those who explore; the second floor you woke up on has two bedrooms and a fake little bathroom, all decorated in the same Victorian dollhouse style as the room you originally found yourself in. The bottom floor has a cute little kitchen with small porcelain dolls sitting around the table, a living room with all the basic furniture one would expect to find (in fact, it looks a great deal like the living room outside the windows), and an office filled with books that can't actually be pulled out of the shelves. On the very top floor is an attic. It's dusty and filled with broken toy beds and chairs, a few shattered doll pieces, and on the far wall you'll see another bookshelf. All seems... fairly standard, really, if you're used to seeing dollhouses.

But what there doesn't appear to be is an exit.

While searching, you may run into another Sleeper. A friend or a stranger, it's clear you're both stuck here together. And the longer the time ticks by, the more concerning things get. You might not notice at first, but anyone inside the dollhouse starts slowly... changing. It seems to go at a different pace for everyone, but the results are always the same. Your skin will start to become porcelain, your cheeks more rosy, your clothes made of cheaper cloth material, your joints become stiffer, and your eyes will start to become more and more glass like. If you don't get out of the dollhouse soon, it's clear that you may become the next doll at the kitchen table.

Searching the house again may feel fruitless, but keen observers may find light scratches on the floor in front of the bookshelf in the attic. Maybe they were like that because of someone moving things around or maybe there's a reason. If you decide to eventually pull the bookshelf aside, there will be a large door in the wall. It may seem strange, given that the wall only leads to the outside, but it's the only door to the outside that actually opens. You expect it to open up into the living room, but instead you'll see the grass of the park below. Far below. It's likely you could get hurt jumping, especially if you've started to turn to porcelain, but what other choice do you have?

Once characters take the plunge, they will find that they land rather softly in the grass, despite how high the jump may have seemed. As soon as you are out of the dollhouse, your body will have returned to complete normal.

And the house with the dollhouse in the living room will be nowhere in sight.

THOSE PESKY KIDS

You start off thinking maybe you're just forgetful and moved minor pieces around in your house without paying attention. You might think you're just seeing strange things out of the corner of your eye, because why wouldn't you? It's Deerington. Things are always strange. But each day, there's something weirder going on. Small objects might turn into entire rooms being rearranged, strange sightings out of the corner of your eye might turn into you swearing you saw a lake monster running through the street, and you swear you can hear the rattling of chains or the sounds of someone telling you to leave echoing in your house at night or following you down the street.

A haunting seems plausible. It wouldn't be the first time in Deerington. But no amount of herbs burned, or exorcisms performed, or chants and spell cast will make these things go away. In fact, they seem to just becoming more and more frequent, and more and more intense. Eventually, the strange creatures you see running around may start to try and attack you. They may start to try and kill you. But they always run off before you can attack back or show yourself to be stronger than them. It's probably the first time the monsters have ever been so easily scared.

Anyone who looks into it further may start to find weird clues lying around after a monster has been chased off. Footprints that don't look quite monster-like, tapes or records that when played will make strange rattling sounds like the chains you've been hearing, a piece of rubber that looks a lot like the monsters skin... Huh. The more you follow the clues, the more they'll lead you towards the answer to your dilemmas; these aren't hauntings.

They're pranks.

People can work together to catch a monster or ghost (or killing it, if you decide to); catching them will lead to them getting quite flustered and angry, struggling to get away. Pull off the mask or the sheet and underneath you'll find... a very disgruntled townsperson. Maybe your business was taking too much money away from theirs and they were hoping you'd close down with enough scares, maybe you talked back to them one time and they were looking for revenge, maybe you ruined their house or garden when you were fighting the things in Deerington that actually try to kill you, or maybe they were just having some "harmless" fun; they all have a different excuse, but they're clearly angry about getting caught.

They woulda gotten away with it if it weren't for you pesky Sleepers, after all.

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Those sounds like good ideas. Tracking would be really helpful for following anything that got away, or if someone wound up getting separated and lost."

Brushing a bit of soil back into one the nearby pots she corrected the plant, before adding a little more and securing it by pressing gently.

"Then I'd be able to find whatever or whoever that running was and make them regret it. But are there classes that you took, or just practicing it when you had a chance?"

"No. That man just taught me, as sort of a thank you for helping him with a problem."

Things had been a little weird. Logan had needed her help dealing with an evil dream-made clone of his half-brother Sabretooth, and he'd repaid her with lessons.

"We'd go out into the forest and track animals."

"I guess that makes it even more authentic and helpful. Plus having a practical use for something always made it easier to learn for me."

It made sense that Rei would have helped someone and wound up getting a cool skill out of it. And probably did it without having to raise her voice or threaten anyone once.

"Yeah. It was really important at one point."

She puffs out a breath, looking down the street, in the direction of the national park.

"This city sometimes shifts, Makoto. It changes into other things. At one point, the city disappeared and we were living in the woods, in November, in Maine. We had to survive...and if it wasn't for people like Logan, I am not sure how most would have managed."

"Sounds like it's pretty rough. But as long as we all work together then there's bound to be someone that knows what to do."

She'd already found out about the surprises, having woken up in a dollhouse and having to find the way out before turning into a ball. Then there had been the pranks that were starting to happen.

"Besides we've faced worse and come out ahead."

"We have. I just don't want you being uninformed."

Rei agrees, casually shrugging at that. She has no doubts they'll make it through this trial together.

"I'm more worried about the others. The...normal people."

They've made it their duty to protect the innocent, after all.

"We'll keep them safe too. Once we know where the monsters are we can take them out before anyone gets hurt."

Makoto made it sound much easier than it was, especially given that this was not quite the same as before. Their powers weren't quite the same, and Usagi had said that her healing was completely on the fritz.

"But it wouldn't do any good to keep them safe if they didn't have a little fun, and if we could blow off a little steam either."

Though there was still the chore of cleaning the apartment before Makoto could go out and do anything to work off some that energy.

"It's...easier said than done at times. I'm just trying to prepare you, Makoto. I've been dealing with this for a long time, and I don't want you to have to go through the same shocks I did, that's all."

Really, that's all. She's trying to spare the younger senshi that.

Nodding she knew that Rei meant well, but Makoto just wasn't the type to plan things out or over-think a situation. She would always be the one to jump first and look second.

"I'm pretty sure I've been shocked out of everything already."

"I thought the same thing. But then a friend told me Godzilla attacked the town."

...Actually, she'd been told that the town turned into the H.M.S. Titanic, and Godzilla had attacked it, but this is much simpler.

"What like from the movies? Is there even an ocean anywhere near here?"

Because wow, a giant monster attacking was a lot different to handle than a bunch of ghosts, storms, and dollhouses. But how cool would that be, maybe they could get giant mechs, or find a way to become super giant themselves. She'd already been shrunk so it had to be possible.

"Yes, to the movies, and no to the ocean. But...the town changes. So, it could easily have an ocean if Sodder wanted it to."

Which was a whole other level of BS. Rei hated it, thanks.

"So it's whatever she wants? Why couldn't she dream of a beach, or someplace that's nicer, maybe something in the mountains."

Makoto didn't really care if it changed, she'd find a way to manage and adapt to it.

"What happens to everyone's homes when it changes like that?"

"It...depends. I've heard things can get weird, and the town will re-arrange. But usually it just stays the same. Goes right back to being what it was before we left."

Which, you know, is just as weird.

"Well, it means you don't have to worry about getting lost when it goes back to normal. And you'll know where everything is still."

Small blessings right?

"Yes. then it just becomes about survival. Which...well, we're both good enough at that."

Shaking her head, Rei looks at the remains of the plant based mess.

"...Here, let me help you finish cleaning up. And then let's get something to eat, okay?"

"I could cook if you wanted. I just got groceries yesterday."

Makoto set the pot she'd started before Rei's new's about Gwen on the window seal. She'd definitely need the broom, and everything would need to be watered again.

"Well, I've been cooking for myself for over a year now...so I certainly am not going to say no to that."

Ever. Rei could cook, but Makoto's cooking was something extraordinary.